Bevel-Up Smoother & Bevel-Up Jointer

identity

Name: Bevel-Up Smoother (Veritas markets it as the "164 1/2H," a nod to the historic Stanley #164 low-angle smoother already covered in the Low-Angle Jack Plane entry) and Bevel-Up Jointer — the smoothing-format and jointing-format members of the modern bevel-up bench-plane line, siblings of the already-built Low-Angle Jack Plane (the "middle" member, Stanley No. 62 lineage). Lie-Nielsen's parallel models are the No. 164 Low Angle Smoothing Plane and the No. 7-1/2 Low Angle Jointer.

A naming trap worth flagging up front, verified directly against Lee Valley's own catalog: Veritas sells at least THREE distinct "bevel-up smoother" products — the Bevel-Up Smoother/164 1/2H (10", the tool documented here), the smaller Veritas Small Bevel-Up Smooth Plane (9", narrower 1¾" blade, a different SKU), and a separate Veritas Low-Angle Smooth Plane (product 45864). This entry is specifically about the 10", 2¼"-iron Bevel-Up Smoother that shares its iron system with the Jack and Jointer — not the smaller siblings.

Family / category: Surfacing tools → planes → the BEVEL-UP branch → the outer two rungs of the bevel-up bench-plane ladder (Block Plane roots it, Low-Angle Jack Plane is the middle/general-purpose rung, this entry is the fine and coarse ends).

One-line: The bevel-up bench line's specialist pair — a short, heavy, steeply-bevelled Smoother built for the final finishing pass on difficult grain, and a long, mouth-set-back Jointer built for truing edges and flattening panels — both sharing the Block Plane's core mechanism (bevel-up iron, no chipbreaker, cutting angle = bed + bevel) but each tuned by the factory for a different end of the coarse-to-fine spectrum the Low-Angle Jack Plane entry already showed one body can span by blade swap alone.

✦ how NOT to use it

not-for. Shooting: Cohen found the Veritas 164 1/2H unsuitable for his shooting-board use — a model-specific finding, not a category rule; verify side geometry and manufacturer guidance before recommending any smoother model for shooting, and prefer the low-angle jack or jointer where the maker expressly supports it. Neither tool can provide chipbreaker-based tear-out control, because neither has a chipbreaker; high cutting angles are the bevel-up alternative, and results, effort, and surface quality vary by wood and setup — some experienced owners retain a bevel-down smoother for difficult reversing grain.

dangerous. No injury pattern unique to either tool was located, and none is needed to name the controls: both tools expose a razor-sharp blade during removal, sharpening, adjustment, jam clearing, and storage, and the Jointer weighs about 7.5 lb. Secure the work; keep hands clear of the mouth and edge; remove or fully retract the blade before sole work or jam clearing; protect the edge in storage (Veritas: retract the blade for storage and protect the edge); set projection on scrap after sharpening (Veritas); lift and control the Jointer's weight deliberately; follow the model manual when adjusting cap pressure and lateral tracking (Lie-Nielsen cautions against over-tightening and gives model-specific adjustment procedures).

damaging.

• Jointer-sole flatness. The Jointer's manufacturer-published .0015" tolerance (Lie-Nielsen) and Fine Woodworking's own dedicated "sole flatness" test category both treat this as a real, checkable spec. Check jointer-sole flatness when work shows repeatable convexity, concavity, or twist; do not infer a defect from tool length alone. One forum account (LOWER confidence, unverified poster) documents hand/belt-sanding a 22" sole flat with light pressure and cooling pauses — a real, if not catastrophic, maintenance task specific to this length.
• Setup on the Smoother near final dimension. Cohen's own comparative tear-out data shows mouth setting and cutting-angle choice are the dominant variables controlling tear-out on this tool. A coarse setting, dull edge, or poor mouth/blade setup can cause tear-out or remove more material than intended near final dimension; a further planing, scraping, or sanding pass can still correct it, at a cost in dimension or time. This is Hewn's own reasoned synthesis from Cohen's test data, not a claim any source states explicitly — held at that confidence level.

beginner-trap.

• Buying the Veritas Bevel-Up Smoother expecting it to also shoot end grain — Cohen found that model unsuitable for his shooting-board use, which contradicts the reasonable assumption that "a plane in the same bevel-up family as the shooting-capable Jack" would share that job.
• Assuming iron interchangeability crosses brands, or even crosses a single brand's own line — Veritas's Jack/Jointer/full Smoother genuinely do share one 2¼" iron (verified directly), which makes it an easy, reasonable-looking mistake to assume the same holds for Lie-Nielsen's line (it does not — 2"/2"/2.300", three different widths within LN's own three bevel-up bench planes) or across brands (it does not).
• Buying the wrong "Veritas smoother" entirely — at least three distinct current Veritas SKUs are marketed under overlapping "bevel-up smoother" language (the 164 1/2H documented here, the Small Bevel-Up Smooth Plane, and the separate Low-Angle Smooth Plane), with different widths, weights, and iron compatibility. A buyer relying on casual product-name matching can end up with a plane that doesn't share irons with the Jack they already own.

lineage-misuse.

• Assuming the Jointer has the same period Stanley pedigree its siblings do. The Jack (No. 62) and the Smoother's namesake (No. 164) are documented Stanley-era models with real production dates (1905–1942 and 1926–1943 respectively, per the Low-Angle Jack Plane entry). No such ancestor for the Jointer was located in this run — treating it as a "revival" the way the Jack and Smoother genuinely are is unsupported; treat it as a modern format completing a product line unless broader patent and catalogue research establishes an earlier example (see History).
• Treating the Jointer as functionally identical to a Stanley #7 because the overall length matches. Cohen's own measurement shows the mouth registration area actually matches a #8's, not a #7's — a real, sourced geometry difference easy to miss given the matching overall length.
• Expecting either tool to behave like the already-documented Low-Angle Jack simply because they share the family's core mechanism. The Smoother's steeper factory bevel and (for the Veritas 164 1/2H, per Cohen) shooting-board unsuitability, and the Jointer's registration-distance difference and checkable sole-flatness spec, are both genuine, sourced departures from the Jack's own documented profile — not variations on a single interchangeable theme.

correct use

The short version — the workbench holds the deep operation.

• Smoother — genuinely good at: the final finishing pass on figured or difficult-grain panels, where its factory-set 38°/50° bevel is tuned specifically for tear-out resistance out of the box; a lower center of gravity than the Jack for stable, controlled finishing strokes. Shooting: Cohen found the Veritas 164 1/2H unsuitable for his shooting-board use; verify side geometry and manufacturer guidance before recommending any smoother model for shooting. Prefer the low-angle jack or jointer where the maker expressly supports shooting.
• Jointer — genuinely good at: truing long edges for glue-ups and flattening wide panels, where its 22" sole is the only one in the bevel-up trio long enough to bridge and correct a long span; Lee Valley's own copy states it is "ideal for jointing edges and flattening large panels." Its mouth is set back to give a Stanley #8-equivalent registration area even though its overall length matches a #7.
• How to use them well (brief): the Smoother's steeper factory bevel handles most figured work as shipped, but the same multi-iron discipline the Low-Angle Jack Plane entry documents as essential still applies for the widest range of grain; for the Jointer, a long, consistent stroke matters, and jointer-sole flatness should be checked when work shows repeatable convexity, concavity, or twist — a defect is not inferred from tool length alone.

✦ matching — the workbench's first read

does: the Smoother delivers a final, tear-out-resistant finishing pass on figured or difficult-grain surfaces, factory-tuned to a steeper cutting angle than the Jack or Jointer ship with · the Jointer trues long edges and flattens wide panels via its 22" sole, the only length in the trio capable of bridging a full glue-up edge or panel · both accept the same 25°/38°/50° interchangeable-iron system as the Low-Angle Jack (Veritas line only — see Kit-Fit) for tuning to grain difficulty.

suits: the Smoother suits final-stage finishing on interlocked or figured hardwoods (Lee Valley's own blade guidance names bird's-eye maple as the case for the steepest 50°-bevel/62°-effective option) · the Jointer suits edge-jointing for glue-ups and panel-flattening, and — per forum-sourced accounts — hand-truing boards too long for a benchtop power jointer · both suit shops that already own a Low-Angle Jack and want the same iron system extended to the fine and coarse ends of the range rather than adopting a second, incompatible bevel-down set.

kit-fit:

• Pairs with: the Veritas Low-Angle Jack's own 2¼" A2/O1/PM-V11 iron set — verified directly against Lee Valley's blade page, confirmed to extend across the Jack, Jointer, and this full-size Smoother (not the smaller Small Bevel-Up Smooth Plane, a different SKU and width). The Jointer additionally pairs with the separate Veritas Bevel-Up Jointer Fence.
• Substitutes for: whether the bevel-up trio (Jack + Smoother + Jointer) substitutes for a full bevel-down three-plane set is a genuinely live, unresolved debate in the source community (see Human Side) — not a settled fact either direction.
• Cannot provide: chipbreaker-based tear-out control, because they have no chipbreaker. High cutting angles are the bevel-up alternative — Veritas offers 50° bevel blades for severe reversing grain and describes the resulting 62° cutting angle as a tear-out-control method; results, effort, and surface quality vary by wood and setup. Some experienced owners retain a bevel-down smoother for difficult reversing grain. A real cross-brand matching hazard: Veritas's own bevel-up bench line shares one 2¼" iron across Jack/Jointer/full Smoother, but Lie-Nielsen's does NOT — the LN No. 62 and No. 164 share a 2" iron, but the No. 7-1/2 Jointer uses a distinct 2.300" iron, incompatible with its own siblings. A recommendation naming "the bevel-up bench line" without specifying brand and model will get iron interchangeability wrong for a real slice of owned inventory.

not-for (project-keyed): don't assume the Smoother shoots — Cohen found the Veritas 164 1/2H unsuitable for his shooting-board use; verify side geometry and manufacturer guidance before recommending any smoother model for shooting, and prefer the low-angle jack or jointer where the maker expressly supports it · don't expect chipbreaker-based control from either tool — they have none; high cutting angles are the bevel-up alternative, with results, effort, and surface quality varying by wood and setup, and some experienced owners keep a bevel-down smoother for difficult reversing grain · don't assume an iron bought for one brand's Jointer fits another model in the "same" line without checking width — the 2"/2"/2.300" LN split and the cross-brand mismatch are real, verified traps.

access: basic depth and mouth adjustment is approachable — a single milled bed, no frog to set, an adjustable mouth in place of a chipbreaker. Long-edge jointing, flatness diagnosis, square sharpening (Lie-Nielsen says its limited lateral adjustment requires a square-sharpened blade), and high-angle figured-grain smoothing (which materially increases pushing effort) are technique-dependent, and the Jointer is much heavier than the Jack. Lie-Nielsen's general category copy calling the low-angle format "great tools for beginners" is not carried here as a blanket beginner recommendation. The same access tension the Jack entry already names applies here too: mechanically approachable, but getting the Smoother's full range on tricky grain, or trusting the Jointer's registration on a long glue-up, still leans on the multi-iron/technique discipline that takes time to build.

per-tool subrecords (the combined entry is retained; these separate the two tools for structured retrieval, per the review):

• Smoother (Veritas Bevel-Up Smoother 164 1/2H; Lie-Nielsen No. 164) — does: final, tear-out-resistant finishing pass on figured or difficult-grain surfaces · suits: final-stage finishing on interlocked or figured hardwoods; small-to-medium panels and parts · kit-fit: Veritas model shares the 2¼" A2/O1/PM-V11 bevel-up bench blade family with the Veritas Jack and Jointer; Lie-Nielsen No. 164 uses a 2" iron shared with the LN No. 62 only · not-for: large-panel flattening or long-edge jointing (10" sole); shooting on the Veritas 164 1/2H per Cohen — verify per model · dimensions: Veritas 10" × 3⅛" sole, 4 lb 14 oz, 12° bed, ships 38° bevel (50° effective); Lie-Nielsen 9½", 3.75 lb, 12° bed, 25° bevel (37° effective) · model compatibility: not the Veritas Small Bevel-Up Smooth Plane (9", 1¾" blade) nor the Veritas Low-Angle Smooth Plane (different SKUs, different widths).
• Jointer (Veritas Bevel-Up Jointer; Lie-Nielsen No. 7-1/2) — does: trues long edges and flattens wide panels via a 22" sole · suits: edge-jointing for glue-ups, panel flattening, hand-truing boards too long for a benchtop power jointer; shooting where the maker expressly supports it · kit-fit: Veritas model shares the 2¼" blade family with the Veritas Jack and Smoother and takes the separate Veritas Bevel-Up Jointer Fence; Lie-Nielsen No. 7-1/2 uses a 2.300" iron shared with no other LN bevel-up bench plane · not-for: final smoothing of small work; expecting chipbreaker-based tear-out control · dimensions: Veritas 22" × 2⅞" sole, 7 lb 8 oz, 12° bed, ships 25° bevel (37° effective); Lie-Nielsen 22", 7.35 lb, 12° bed, sole ground flat to .0015" · model compatibility: mouth set back to a Stanley #8-equivalent registration distance (7⅞") although overall length matches a #7 (Cohen's measurement).

revival: a natural second and third purchase for a maker who already owns and trusts a Low-Angle Jack and wants the same iron system extended to dedicated ends of the coarse-to-fine range, rather than starting a second, incompatible bevel-down collection from scratch.

anatomy

Only the deltas from Block Plane and Low-Angle Jack Plane are documented — the shared mechanism (bevel-up iron, no chipbreaker, adjustable mouth, cutting angle = bed + bevel) is not re-documented.

• Body length governs role, not raw capability. Smoother: 10" × 3⅛" sole (Veritas), 9½" (Lie-Nielsen No. 164). Jointer: 22" × 2⅞" sole (Veritas), 22" (Lie-Nielsen No. 7-1/2, matching the classic Stanley #7 footprint). A short sole registers on local high spots for controlled finishing passes; a 22" sole spans and averages out an edge or panel toward straightness — standard plane-length mechanics, not something either manufacturer states as marketing copy, so held as reasoned inference rather than a directly-sourced claim.
• Weight and its handling trade-off. Smoother: 4 lb 14 oz (Veritas), 3.75 lb (Lie-Nielsen No. 164) — Lee Valley's own copy credits this mass with "a low center of gravity for smooth, stable cutting action." Jointer: 7 lb 8 oz (Veritas), 7.35 lb (Lie-Nielsen No. 7-1/2) — the added mass helps maintain momentum through a long, flat pass but is a real fatigue factor across an extended glue-up session; neither manufacturer quantifies the fatigue trade-off directly.
• Sole-flatness spec — a genuine, sourced brand difference. Veritas states only that the sole is "flat and square to the sides," no numeric tolerance published. Lie-Nielsen publishes a hard number for both the No. 164 and the No. 7-1/2: ground flat to .0015". Fine Woodworking's own structured editor-test format rated the Veritas Bevel-Up Jointer's sole flatness "Good" as a distinct, named test category — flatness at 22" is treated by every source as a real, checkable spec, unlike at block-plane length. [Lie-Nielsen product pages; Fine Woodworking test table, fetched directly]
• Factory-set standard bevel differs by tool — the entry's clearest anatomy finding. The Smoother ships with a 38° bevel (→ 50° effective cutting angle, "York pitch"); the Jack and the Jointer both ship with the general-purpose 25° bevel (→ 37° effective). Lee Valley's own copy states the steeper factory bevel is "an ideal starting angle for minimizing tear-out on difficult wood" — a deliberate, out-of-the-box factory tuning decision, not something the user has to discover and regrind for themselves the way the Low-Angle Jack Plane entry documents for that tool's own quiver-of-irons system. [Lee Valley product page, fetched directly]
• Iron width — shared within the Veritas line, NOT shared within the Lie-Nielsen line, and NOT shared between brands. Verified directly against Lee Valley's own blade product page: "Lapped replacement and optional blades in A2 tool steel are available for our bevel-up jointer, jack and smoother planes... All blades are 2¼" wide." This confirms and extends the interchangeability claim already made in the Low-Angle Jack Plane entry — it holds for the full-size Smoother and Jointer too, not just the Jack. It does NOT hold for Lie-Nielsen's line, verified directly against LN's own spec pages: the No. 62 Jack and No. 164 Smoother both use a 2" iron, but the No. 7-1/2 Jointer uses a 2.300" iron — LN's own three bevel-up bench planes are not cross-compatible with each other, let alone with Veritas. A real matching-engine hazard, structurally identical in kind to this corpus's own Bench Dog entry's three-incompatible-hole-diameter finding: "bevel-up plane iron" alone is not enough specification for a recommendation — brand and model determine whether a user's existing irons will fit a new plane in the same line.

variations (living)

• Veritas Bevel-Up Smoother (164 1/2H) — 10" × 3⅛", ductile cast iron, coffin-shaped body, 4 lb 14 oz, 12° bed, ships with a 38° bevel (50° effective), 2¼" × 3/16" blade in A2/O1/PM-V11. Price snapshot: $299–$316 (fetched 2026-07-20); about CAD $326 on the reviewer's check (2026-08-12). Snapshots, not current prices.
• Veritas Bevel-Up Jointer — 22" × 2⅞", ductile cast iron, 7 lb 8 oz, 12° bed, ships with a 25° bevel (37° effective), 2¼" × 3/16" blade. Price snapshot: $399–$409 (fetched 2026-07-20); about CAD $424–$447 on the reviewer's check (2026-08-12). Optional dedicated Veritas Bevel-Up Jointer Fence sold separately — a Jointer-only accessory, not shared with the Jack or Smoother.
• Veritas Small Bevel-Up Smooth Plane — a distinct, smaller SKU: 9", 1¾"-wide blade, 2 lb 12 oz, $179 (snapshot, fetched 2026-07-20) — explicitly NOT iron-compatible with the 164 1/2H/Jack/Jointer trio (see Identity naming trap).
• Lie-Nielsen No. 164 Low Angle Smoothing Plane — 9½", 2" × .187" blade, 12° bed, 25° blade/37° effective, iron body, 3.75 lb, $325 (snapshot, fetched 2026-07-20).
• Lie-Nielsen No. 7-1/2 Low Angle Jointer — 22" (matching the classic Stanley #7 footprint), 2.300" × 3/16" blade, iron body/bronze cap, 7.35 lb, $450 (snapshot, fetched 2026-07-20). LN's own copy: "the largest Low Angle Block Plane ever produced."
• Stock status as fetched 2026-07-20: all three Lie-Nielsen low-angle bevel-up bench planes (No. 62 Jack, No. 164 Smoother, No. 7-1/2 Jointer) show "This product is not available / Notify Me When Available" on lie-nielsen.com. No "discontinued" language appears on LN's own site — that framing was found only in third-party reseller listings (held at LOWER confidence). The reviewer's check (2026-08-12) still showed the No. 164 and No. 7-1/2 unavailable. The cause is not established by anything public found; this is a snapshot with no causal interpretation. A 2022 forum post suggests the No. 164 specifically has had intermittent stock issues for years — a recurring pattern, not confirmed as a one-time fetch artifact.
• No dedicated bevel-up smoother or bevel-up jointer was located from WoodRiver or Quangsheng in the direct web search run 2026-07-20 (English-language maker and reseller sites; the exact search path was not recorded, so this negative is not yet reproducible) — both makers' bevel-up lines appeared to stop at the jack/block-plane level. Veritas was the only maker located in this dated search (2026-07-20) with both a dedicated bevel-up smoother and a dedicated bevel-up jointer purchasable — Lie-Nielsen makes both designs but both showed unavailable.

trades

Cabinetmaking and fine furniture — the same home trade the Low-Angle Jack Plane entry documents, here specialized to final-finish work (Smoother) and glue-up/panel work (Jointer) rather than the Jack's one-plane versatility. Lutherie and instrument making — the bevel-up bench line's precision is valued generally (per the Low-Angle Jack entry), and a dedicated Jointer suits truing long, thin stock for necks and sides. Honest edge, shared with the sibling entries: the cross-trade (non-wood) and powered/CNC ends remain thin — no strong cross-trade twin was found for either tool in this run's research.

lineage

Ancestors. Both descend directly from the Block Plane's bevel-up mechanism, by way of the Low-Angle Jack Plane entry's own documented scale-up from a pocket tool to a bench-format body. The Smoother's period ancestor is the Stanley No. 164 (1926–1943), already named and dated in the Low-Angle Jack Plane entry as the No. 62's shorter smoothing-format sibling. No Stanley jointer-length counterpart or other period predecessor for the Jointer was located in this run — see History below. Treat the No. 7-1/2/Veritas jointer as a modern format unless broader patent and catalogue research establishes an earlier example.

Descendants/the branch this entry closes out. With this entry, the corpus's bevel-up bench-plane ladder (Smoother → Jack → Jointer) mirrors the bevel-down ladder (Smoothing Plane (Western) / Jack Plane (Western) / Jointer Plane (Western)) rung-for-rung, exactly as the Low-Angle Jack Plane entry anticipated.

Contemporaries. The bevel-down Smoothing Plane (Western) and Jointer Plane (Western) — the chipbreaker-bearing dedicated specialists these two tools are most directly weighed against, and the live "is the bevel-up trio a real substitute for a bevel-down set, or conspicuous consumption?" debate documented in Human Side below. Also a contemporary of the already-built Low-Angle Jack Plane itself, which some owners use as their de facto smoother or short jointer rather than buying the dedicated tools (see Matching).

Petroski lens — this pair does NOT run "form follows failure" the way most of this corpus's entries do; the Jointer specifically runs "form follows completeness." Most tools in this corpus evolve because an earlier form broke or failed at a job. The Bevel-Up Jointer isn't fixing a documented failure in a prior tool — no Stanley jointer-length low-angle bevel-up plane was located in this run. No source located in this run's research states this negatively/explicitly (an absence-of-evidence finding, held at MEDIUM confidence, not a directly-sourced claim), but it is consistent across every source checked: the historic Stanley low-angle bevel-up line stops at the No. 62 (14", jack-length) and the No. 164 (9½", smoother-length) — it never reached jointer length. Lie-Nielsen's own current product copy for the No. 7-1/2 calls it "the largest Low Angle Block Plane ever produced" — even Lie-Nielsen, which built its whole company on reviving out-of-production Stanley designs, frames this tool as a scaled-up block plane rather than a peer to the bevel-down jointer tradition it visually resembles. The Jointer exists to complete a product LINE (matching the bevel-down ladder rung-for-rung, giving Veritas's shared-iron system full coarse-to-fine coverage), not to fix a documented failure in an earlier design. [Lie-Nielsen No. 7-1/2 product page, fetched directly]

history

Origin — the current Veritas and Lie-Nielsen products are modern manufacture; the two formats differ in age. The low-angle smoother format has a documented Stanley No. 164 predecessor (1926–1943; Lie-Nielsen expressly says its No. 164 is based on that plane). The jointer-length format has no period counterpart located in this run. So the modern Veritas Bevel-Up Smoother and Bevel-Up Jointer, and Lie-Nielsen's No. 164 and No. 7-1/2, are modern products completing a system: the Lie-Nielsen No. 164 a stated adaptation of the Stanley 164, the Veritas 164 1/2H Veritas's own larger, heavier design related to but not identical to the vintage 164, and the jointers a modern format unless broader patent and catalogue research establishes an earlier example (the Low-Angle Jack Plane itself is a documented 1905–1942 Stanley model).

Launch dating — an honest gap, held at reasoned-inference confidence. No manufacturer-stated introduction year was located for either Veritas tool despite direct searching of Lee Valley's own site. The best available evidence is indirect: Derek Cohen's dated, named reviews of the Bevel-Up Jointer (November 2005) and the Bevel-Up Smoother (January 2006) place both tools on the market by the second half of 2005 at the latest, with Cohen's own framing suggesting the Jointer arrived after the Low-Angle Jack and around the same time as or shortly before the Smoother — completing the three-plane bevel-up bench family within roughly a year. This is inferred from review dates, not a cited manufacturer announcement. [Derek Cohen, "The Veritas (Lee Valley) Bevel Up Jointer," inthewoodshop.com, Nov 2005; "The Veritas (Lee Valley) Bevel Up Smoother," inthewoodshop.com, Jan 2006 — both fetched directly]

Patents. Both current Lee Valley product pages state "Patented" but give no patent number, and this run could not locate a Smoother- or Jointer-specific patent distinct from the shared bevel-up mechanism patents (adjustable mouth, blade registration) already documented in the sibling entries. The review (2026-08-12) narrows the gap: US 7,603,783 B2, assigned to Lee Valley Tools, covers an adjustable-mouth woodworking plane with a stop screw matching the advertised mouth-stop function, and US 8,424,214 B2 covers a plane-blade adjustment/lateral-stabilizer improvement; whether each claim reads on each sold model requires claim-to-product analysis, which has not been done.

A design decision specific to the Jointer, not shared with the Jack. Derek Cohen's direct measurement comparison against vintage Stanley jointers found that although the Veritas Bevel-Up Jointer matches a Stanley #7's overall 22" length, its mouth is deliberately set further back — giving it the same toe-to-mouth registration distance (7⅞") as the longer Stanley #8, not the shorter #7's 7 5/16". Cohen's own framing: "This offers the equivalent registration area as a #8 jointer plane." This is a real, sourced, Jointer-specific geometry choice, not present in the Jack or Smoother. [Derek Cohen, Bevel Up Jointer review, fetched directly]

human side

Derek Cohen (Perth, Australia — identified on his own site as a clinical psychologist and a long-established, widely cross-cited hand-tool reviewer) wrote two separate, methodologically detailed reviews specifically of these two tools, not the Jack. For the Jointer, he built an entire sofa table using the tool as his only bench plane, stress-testing it across a full range of cutting angles, and compared it head-to-head against his own tuned vintage Stanley #7: "There is no doubt in my mind that the LV Bevel Up Jointer Plane far outclasses the Stanley #7, a plane that has been the benchmark for many." He also names a real, specific complaint — the front knob's mounting screw was "sunk a tad too deeply," leaving sharp recess edges, where the Stanley's sat flush. For the Smoother, Cohen ran a controlled comparative test — shaving thickness measured with a digital micrometer, tear-out graded and photographed — against a vintage Stanley #4½, an HNT Gordon smoother, and Veritas's own smaller Low-Angle Smooth Plane, across six timber species including notoriously difficult interlocked-grain Australian hardwoods (Jarrah, Karri, Camphor laurel). His verdict: "For the majority of the smoothing, especially that involving hardwoods, I will turn to the BUS." A detail worth carrying directly into Matching: Cohen states plainly that "the BUS cannot be used on a shooting board" — his conclusion about the specific Veritas Bevel-Up Smoother (164 1/2H) he tested, not a finding about every smoother body (the Lie-Nielsen No. 164 is geometrically different and was not tested). The Low-Angle Jack, whose defining job (per that entry's own Matthew Kenney citation) is shooting end grain, is the family member whose makers expressly support that job. [Derek Cohen, both reviews, inthewoodshop.com, fetched directly]

Chris Gochnour (Fine Woodworking contributing author, identity verified via FWW's own byline) reviewed the Bevel-Up Jointer for Fine Woodworking's structured editor-test format (Dec 2007), rating its sole flatness "Good" in FWW's own test table and writing: "Jointing board edges for glue-up was quick and predictable, and panels flattened with the plane were ready for finish — flat and smooth, with no torn grain. I highly recommend this tool." [Fine Woodworking, Dec 1 2007, fetched directly]

The live "is the bevel-up trio a real substitute for a full bevel-down set?" debate. A Sawmill Creek thread on bevel-up smoothing planes captures two named, opposed positions: Charles Guest argues that a baseline bevel-down jack/jointer/smoother trio is the real foundation and stacking a bevel-up set on top of it is "conspicuous consumption"; Prashun Patel, who runs the bevel-up jack and jointer as his primary users, calls them "indispensable." This is reported as a live, unresolved community disagreement, not adjudicated one way or the other. Multiple independent named posters in the same forum thread (Prashun Patel, Jim Koepke, Keegan Shields) each separately report that they still reach for a bevel-down smoother with a tight chipbreaker (commonly a Lie-Nielsen No. 4 or 4½) on their worst reversing/interlocked-grain boards, even though they own and use a bevel-up smoother regularly — a structural limitation (no chipbreaker on any bevel-up plane) that several experienced users independently converge on managing the same way. [Sawmill Creek, "Bevel-up smoothing planes," fetched directly]

Stories/texture — the LumberJocks record of maintaining a jointer at this length. One forum account (unverified poster identity, held at LOWER confidence) describes flattening a 22" Veritas Bevel-Up Jointer's sole — which had developed a slight end-to-end concavity — using a belt sander, working cautiously with light pressure and cooling pauses to avoid overheating the ductile-iron casting. A separate Sawmill Creek account (also unverified identity) describes using the Bevel-Up Jointer effectively on 12-foot boards too long for a power jointer, taking 2–3-foot continuous shavings on hard maple. [LumberJocks and Sawmill Creek threads, fetched directly; both LOWER confidence, unverified posters]

✦ proof of existence

Manufacturer documentation (HIGH confidence, directly fetched): current Lee Valley product pages for the Bevel-Up Smoother and Bevel-Up Jointer; current Lie-Nielsen product pages for the No. 164 and No. 7-1/2, including LN's own downloadable instruction material.

Independent institutional verification: Fine Woodworking's own structured "Editor Test Results" format (named byline, Chris Gochnour, Dec 2007), including a distinct rated "Sole Flatness: Good" category for the Bevel-Up Jointer — about as close to an institutional verification record as exists for a tool this modern.

Patents: both current Lee Valley pages state "Patented" with no patent number given; no Smoother- or Jointer-specific patent distinct from the shared bevel-up mechanism patents already cited in the sibling entries was located this run. The review names two relevant Lee Valley-assigned patents (US 7,603,783 B2, adjustable mouth with stop screw; US 8,424,214 B2, blade adjustment/lateral stabilizer) — see History; claim-to-product mapping not done.

Museum/collection records: none found, as expected — both tools are modern (post-2000) commercial products with no located historic antecedent to anchor a museum search to.

references

images this entry needs (spec for Forge — see tickets)

• The factory-tuned bevel comparison (PRIORITY). One row showing all three bevel-up bench planes — Smoother (38°/50° effective), Jack (25°/37° effective, per the sibling entry), Jointer (25°/37° effective) — with their stock/factory bevel angle called out, making visible that the Smoother alone ships pre-tuned for tear-out resistance.
• The registration-area diagram (carries the Jointer's sharpest finding). A side-by-side of the Veritas Bevel-Up Jointer against a Stanley #7 and a Stanley #8, showing matching overall length to the #7 but matching mouth-to-toe registration distance to the #8.
• The iron-width compatibility chart — a real matching-engine deliverable. A simple table/diagram: Veritas Jack/Jointer/full Smoother all share 2¼"; Lie-Nielsen's own three bevel-up bench planes split 2"/2"/2.300"; the two brands don't cross-match at all. Directly reusable as app matching data.
• (optional) The three-Veritas-smoothers disambiguation — a labelled row of the 164 1/2H, the Small Bevel-Up Smooth Plane, and the Low-Angle Smooth Plane, so a buyer or the app's matching logic doesn't conflate them.

The reviewer's corrections (11)

• SHOULD-FIX — Separate documented lineage from an absolute negative
• SHOULD-FIX — Do not call the smoother format a 21st-century invention
• SHOULD-FIX — Scope the shooting-board limitation to the evidence
• SHOULD-FIX — Replace the universal chipbreaker performance claim
• SHOULD-FIX — Remove the invented registration-mismatch misuse
• SHOULD-FIX — Correct the “nothing downstream” and sole-error overstatements
• SHOULD-FIX — Restore ordinary sharp-edge and handling safety
• SHOULD-FIX — Tighten access and beginner framing
• SHOULD-FIX — Make market, availability, and negative-search claims reproducible
• SHOULD-FIX — Resolve the combined-record matching problem
• MINOR — Replace domain-only references with exact citations